1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to metal organic compounds. More particularly, the invention is related to tellurium containing organic compounds and a method for their synthesis.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Metal Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition film growth of Mercury-Cadmium-Telluride (HgCdTe) is adversely affected by the high growth temperatures of 400.degree. C. to 425.degree. C. which are needed to crack diethyl telluride. Problems include mercury evaporation from the film and diffusion across the interface between the film and the substrate. Ditertiarybutyl telluride has been used to deposit CdTe and HgTe films at 250.degree. C. with excellent results. This material has been shown to work at temperatures as low as 220.degree. C. to 230.degree. C. However, the resulting metal films are inadequate for applications in sensitive IR detectors. Furthermore, the preparation of the tellurium source compound, ditertiarybutyl telluride, is a low yield process.
Some unsymmetric dialkyl tellurides are useful as tellurium source compounds in the Metal Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition process. Unsymmetric dialkyl tellurides, phenyl alkyl tellurides and phenyl alkyl selenides have been prepared from the reaction of ditellurides or diphenyl diselenides with organometallic reagents in ether solvent. The present invention does not use ditellurides in the preparation of dialkyl tellurides. This eliminates the need for preparing and isolating ditelluride intermediates.